It is common practice to monitor the spindles on rolling mills to avoid catastrophic spindle failures and resultant damage. Commonly, the spindles are monitored and replaced according to a time-based system. This, however, can prove inaccurate, as the wear on the spindles is dependent on loads and utilization, which, in a plant environment, is continually changing. Therefore, spindles may fail before their scheduled replacement time due to increased loads or other problems that increase the rate of wear. In addition, spindles may be replaced prematurely, simply because the scheduled replacement date has arrived. This results in a decrease in productivity, as well as increased maintenance costs.
Another method currently available for monitoring spindle wear is a wireless torque monitoring system. While effective, this system is costly and, therefore, users often find it too expensive to justify its implementation in large plant environments. Also, within plant environments, there is such significant damage to these systems that continuous replacement make them impractical.
One of the objects of this invention is to provide a relatively inexpensive, method to continuously monitor the condition and wear of rotating equipment using of the shelf equipment. A benefit is reduction in labour during routine maintenance while giving an early warning of a change in operating conditions which may warrant further inspection and the eventual replacement of failing equipment.